Back in the early and mid-90s, the buzzed fade hairstyle and baggy fashion of Apache Indian and his groovy brand of bhangra-muffin music were all the rage. The British singer-songwriter might have long stepped out of the global limelight but is still going strong with his multiple multicultural initiatives and interesting collaborations. Come October, Apache Indian will hit the stage in Doha in a gig that’s sure to be a breezy ragga trip down memory lane for many.
Ray McRobbie, Director of Entertainment, Radisson Blu Hotel Doha, told Community, “Radisson Blu Hotel Doha is delighted to announce that Apache Indian will perform at Giwana Ballroom on Thursday, October 20. He will be singing all his hits including Boomshakalak, Chok There and Arranged Marriage. Come along and enjoy reggae and bhangra music from the Ivor Novello award-winning artiste.”
Born Steven Kapur into a family of Indian origin, Apache Indian grew up in the multi-racial Handsworth, an inner city of Birmingham, UK, picking up influences from reggae bands such as UB40 and Steel Pulse that had sprouted out of his neighbourhood.
After working his way through local sound systems, Apache Indian dove head first into becoming a dancehall deejay and soon recorded his first single in 1990, Movie Over India, which blended ragga and bhangra sounds and proved to be a big hit with fans of both genres.
His signature ragga music pulled in influences from the bhangra style of his Indian heritage, and his easy-on-the-ears vocal style brought together Indian, Jamaican and English cultural elements. Raggamuffin music, often abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall music and reggae, in which the instrumentation primarily consists of electronic music.
Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music, which is also referred to as dancehall reggae. Apache Indian is popularly known for being “the earliest UK artiste of Asian origin to make an impact on the UK charts with a series of hits during the 90s.”
Two more singles Chok There and Don Raja made him a top choice for the major labels, leading him to sign a recording contract with Island Records in 1992 and eventually cutting his first album 1993’s No Reservations. “By the mid-90s, ragga production often included elements of hip hop, and Apache Indian’s next record was no exception,” Wade Kergan writes in her biography on the artiste for the website Allmusic.
“Featuring guest appearances from Jamaican reggae stars Frankie Paul, Yami Bolo, and American MC Tim Dog, 1995’s Make Way for the Indian included sampled tabla beats and spawned a US club hit with the shuffling R&B of Boom Shak-a-Lak. The Don Raja of British ragga began to increase his international exposure, appearing in Hindi films like Love Birds and a feature role in Love Story ’98. He continued to record as well, releasing Real People in 1998 and Karma in 2001.”
Boom Shack-A-Lak, arguably his most famous track, has featured in nearly a dozen Hollywood movies, including Dumb and Dumber, and Dumb and Dumber To, and on the soundtrack for Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and in more than 70 TV commercials across the world, including an Axe ad featuring Jennifer Aniston.
While Real People, produced by Harjinder Noparat and sprinkled with more Indian elements than his previous works, has been hailed as his most experimental album, Karma, his first album of the new century, saw him collaborate with Luciano, Boy George, and Mafia & Fluxy, and his return to a more purer form of reggae.
Over the years, the 49-year-old has recorded with Boyz II Men, Blackstreet, Wreckx ‘n’ Effect, UB40, US chart topper Sean Paul, Maxi Priest, General Levy, Brian and Tony Gold, Shaggy, Yami Bolo, Boy George, A R Rahman, Sameera Singh, Asha Bhosle, and Pras of the Fugees.
In an interview with the website Solidpulse in 2002, Apache Indian had said that he got involved with reggae music at a very early age. “It was the music for me from the age of 12. I got involved professionally at the age of 18. I grew up listening to a lot of roots reggae from Jam, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, Sly and Robbie,” he had said. Three years ago, Apache Indian opened the Apache Indian Music Academy at South and City College, in his hometown of Handsworth.